Let’s Adapt: Games for Climate Change Resiliency

DESCRIPTION

The Caribbean has a mix of ‘very high human development’ to ‘low human development’-ranked countries (as reflected in the Human Development Index) and a notable susceptibility to natural disasters. There has been a concerted effort by several governmental and non-governmental institutions to increase climate change awareness by highlighting specific regional and national vulnerabilities that can hinder development gains. Despite these efforts, there are still limited resources available that clearly communicate pressing climate concerns and also function as a “call to action” for climate resiliency at the community level.

This two-day workshop will connect community members, Red Cross volunteers, disaster management practitioners, and game designers to come together to play and create games that communicate climate change and adaptation practices specific to the Caribbean as laid out in the recent Caribbean Climate Change Adaptation (3CA) Toolkit. By connecting relevant parties from Barbados and around the region on new participatory approaches to adaptation, we will explore how interactive resources and game-based activities can assist in the task of communicating climate change information and invoking grassroots participation within our communities. These newly adapted games can be used by Caribbean organizations and volunteers to discuss the impact climate has at the regional and local levels and to consider measures for climate adaptation and resiliency.

The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre has created a series of games addressing climate change and adaptation. On the first day we will play a few of these games and modify them for increased relevancy to the Caribbean. On the second day we will brainstorm new game concepts and begin prototyping and testing these ideas. At the end of the workshop we will debrief about the use of interactive tools and come up with recommendations for future resources, including but not limited to, games and web/mobile applications.

This workshop is organized by the University of Miami's School of Communication in partnership with the IFRC’s Red Cross Caribbean Disaster Risk Management Reference Center (CADRIM) and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCCC). “Let's Adapt” is made possible with funding from Invoking the Pause and the MK Gratitude Fund of RSF Social Finance.

We are grateful to the Barbados Red Cross Society for hosting this workshop.

DATE/TIME:

Thursday June 19 and Friday June 20, 2014, from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

RSVP:

We kindly ask that you RSVP by Friday, May 30, 2014.

AGENDA:

Thursday (Day 1)

• Introduction
• Break the Ice (climate “apples to apples”)
• Climate Game 1
• Game Debrief 1
• Lunch
• Climate Game 2
• Game Debrief 2
• Preparing for Day 2 (debrief and discussion)

• Group opening activity
• Brainstorm session
• Game design / playtest session 1
• Lunch
• Game design / playtest session 2
• Debrief and wrap up